Debt Wish: This Is Bananas!

Debt Wish: This Is Bananas!

While Many Americans in the private sector are putting off retirement plans and continuing to work at a later age because of economic factors, the government has been spending millions in taxpayer dollars to fund a chimpanzee retirement resort. Is this the “Planet of the Apes” or just another case of Washington waste?

SHOT: More Americans Are Putting Off Retirement In Order To Make Ends Meet: “Nearly two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 45 and 60 say they plan to delay retirement, according to a report to be released Friday by the Conference Board. … The increase was driven by the financial losses, layoffs and income stagnation sustained during the last few years of recession and recovery… The labor force has been getting older for decades for reasons that range from longer life spans and better health to companies’ replacement of defined-benefit pensions with higher-risk 401(k) plans.” (Lauren Weber, “Americans Rip Up Retirement Plans,”The Wall Street Journal, 1/31/13)

CHASER: Gov’t Spends Millions On Resort So Chimps Can Retire: “The National Institutes of Health, the government’s medical research arm, is spending about $12 million annually to care for the chimps formerly used for research… In 2011, taxpayers supported 713 animals at a cost of $11.6 million, according to NIH records. But last year the price tag rose to $12.4 million, even though NIH supported 40 fewer chimps.” (“Government spends millions on resort for retired research chimps,”The Washington Guardian 1/31/13)

BankruptingAmerica.org is an educational project of Public Notice, an independent, nonpartisan, non-profit, 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to providing facts and insight on the effects public policy has on Americans’ financial well-being.

Videos

About Western Free Press

Combining straight news from a wide variety of sources with insightful opinion from our team of writers, Western Free Press has provided daily coverage of political, economic, and social issues in Arizona and around the nation since 2010.

Western Free Press was voted one of Arizona's top five political websites in the Arizona Capitol Times' 2012 Best of the Capitol awards.